


Black Eyes and Busted Lips

by greyedges



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Albus will stand up for his best friend no matter what, Bullying, Fighting, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M, Slurs, there’s some sibling moments here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:08:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28706439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyedges/pseuds/greyedges
Summary: // WARNING: homophobic slurs and fighting. // Albus picks a fight with some Gryffindor bullies and it doesn't end too well for him, but then it does.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 116





	Black Eyes and Busted Lips

Scorpius felt a rough shove against his shoulder, knocking him into Albus who also seemed to have gotten shoved as they stumbled forward.

Before Scorpius could even turn to Albus and ask if he was alright, there was an obvious chorus of snickers from the Gryffindor boys ahead of them. The clear perpetrators of the shoving.

Scorpius huffed and was prepared to keep walking, ignoring the bullies, but Albus wasn't on the same page.

"Albus, don't," Scorpius tried as Albus lunged forward in anger, already knowing what his best friend was thinking before it even happened.

Albus ignored his friend's protest and shoved the nearest offender, which happened to be Zach Richards, a Gryffindor in their year. Albus squared his hands against Zach's shoulders and shoved with practically his whole body.

Zach stumbled forward, caught off guard while his cronies turned with distasteful looks, sending daggers at Albus with their eyes.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" One of them gasped as if they hadn't initiated the shoving.

"You shove like a pansy, Potter," Zach snickered as he got his foot holding back, "Your little girl hands couldn't do any damage."

Albus growled, balling his hands into fists and aggressively stepped towards Zach, "My little—"

"Albus, stop," Scorpius cut him off, reaching out getting a handful if Albus' robes, "Just ignore him and lets get out of here."

As Albus shrugged Scorpius off, he also let his bag fall off his shoulder to the ground.

"You should really listen to your boyfriend," Nate Brooks, one of the other Gryffindors, scoffed.

"Girlfriend, more like," Zach snorted, looking back to get approving chuckles from his friends.

Scorpius could practically feel Albus burst at the seams with anger. He knew as soon as the words left Zach's mouth that it would upset Albus more than him. He attempted to grab Albus again to hold him back, but he slipped out of his hold too easily. 

Albus shoved Zach again, harder than before, "You can't—" Another shove, "say those things—" A harder shove, "about him!"

Zach stumbled but quickly retaliated, shoving Albus back. "I can say whatever the hell I want, fag," he spat at Albus.

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation before Albus' hand was clean against Zach's face.

The slap echoed down the corridor as Zach held his face in feigned agony. 

For a moment, Scorpius thought Albus was going to back away, he'd got his hit in and if it went any further the quarrel would start attracting Prefects or even teachers.

But before Scorpius could make a move to pull Albus back the silence was broken and Zach had wrestled Albus to the ground and punches were flying. 

"Albus!" Scorpius shrieked, moving forward in a lame attempt to pull Zach off of him.

As he was trying to pry them apart, Nate came up and shoved him away, knocking Scorpius off balance and onto his bum. He glanced back over at Albus and Zach just in time to see Albus throw a punch straight into Zach's nose.

The Gryffindor groaned and quickly cupped his nose as blood started dripping. Albus barely got a snicker in before Zach's own fists were in his face.

Scorpius cringed hard as Albus' head was thrown back into the stone floor from the pressure of his punch. Albus was definitely going to have a black eye and possibly a concussion too from that blow alone.

Albus didn't make any noises but he held his arm over his face as he tried to recover from Zach's direct hit. Zach sat back triumphantly, laughing cockily as blood still flowed from his nose.

"Looks like the little princess here can't take a hit, let alone give out any," Zach taunted. He had Albus pinned to the ground still, his legs straddling his hips. As he let up, moving to stand, Albus made his next move. The fight wasn't over yet, Albus was too stubborn to let it end like this.

He took the opportunity of loosing Zach's weight on his legs and swiftly brought his right knee straight into the Gryffindor's groin.

Zach groaned dramatically and keeled over, holding his stomach, but Albus wasn't finished.

Albus locked his left leg around Zach's right and used his right leg that was already up to push Zach over, flipping their positions so Albus now had him pinned to the ground.

Scorpius couldn't help but cringe again as Zach hit the ground harshly, his head narrowly avoiding slamming into the stone like Albus' had.

"Don't ever talk about Scorpius like that again," Albus made sure to spit in Zach's face as he snarled at him. The Gryffindor hadn't been able to recover from the hit to the groin when Albus began beating on him again.

"Albus, let him go," Scorpius tried weakly, "He's not worth it."

Scorpius' voice was unfortunately lost in the crowd of students who had gathered around and were either shouting for them to stop or shouting for who they wanted to win.

He suddenly felt a tug on his shoulder and turned to see Lily Luna had pushed her way through the crowd and had her hands outstretched to him.

"Come on," she huffed, helping Scorpius to his feet. "Boys are so bloody stupid," she rolled her eyes and Scorpius could only nod in agreement.

Albus was already on his back again by the time Scorpius turned back, this time Nate Brooks and Danny Greenwood, another Gryffindor crony, were on him too. 

Zach had moved off to the edge of the student-formed circle, one arm holding his stomach and one hand catching the blood falling from his nose, having given up apparently.

But Albus had also given up and curled into himself, taking the two boys' kicks and jabs to his stomach and chest. Scorpius' stomach twisted and his brain couldn't even process the horrible, homophobic things that were coming from Nate and Danny's mouths.

"Get off of him!" Scorpius cried out, "Can't you see that you've won?" He was sobbing now and Lily was gripping his arm tightly.

He felt another shove to his shoulder and turned to see James Sirius forcefully pushing his way through the crowd.

"You bloody idiots," James hollered, "Get off of him!" James shoved Danny with all his force, making the Gryffindor blindly stumble away. Nate, having seen James push Danny, was prepared and put up a fight, shoving back and attempting to throw punches.

"Trying to protect your pansy baby brother 'cause he can't defend himself?" Nate mocked, sticking his tongue out.

Scorpius watched as James calculated his next move carefully. He was Head Boy after all, he could use those powers as a student leader to punish the Gryffindor bullies. Or he could use his power as Albus' older brother and knock some skulls. He's also a Potter and therefore chose the latter.

James' fist was colliding with Nate's jaw before Scorpius could even try to protest again.

"Say that about Al one more time and you're dead, Brooks," James spat as Nate stumbled backwards, just mouth gaping mostly in shock.

Nate got one more swing in at James before Headmaster McGonagall's voice was echoing through the corridor and students were scattering every which way.

"For Heavens sake, what is going on here?" Her voice boomed as she moved through the wave of students. She stepped into the circle just as James dodged a punch from Nate.

"Brooks! Potter!" She snapped, holding her wand out towards them, "Do not make me use magic on you right now." She then turned and noticed Zach and Albus hunched over on the ground with bruises and blood all over.

"Get Mr. Potter to the hospital wing immediately!" She demanded and as if summoned, Madam Pomfrey appeared, and magically whisked Albus away as if her was on a stretcher.

"What about me?" Zach whined pathetically.

"You can walk," Pomfrey said pointedly, moving down the hall already.

"The rest of you back to your houses! No dodling!" McGonagall shooed the other students away.

Professor Longbottom and Professor Turner were also there, as Heads of House they began questioning James, Nate and Danny about the fight.

Scorpius didn't care much about the retelling and dashed off after Pomfrey, Lily reluctantly followed after him.

As they made it to the Hospital Wing, Zach was moping his way into the room and snarled when he spotted them.

"Oh bugger off," Lily spat, shoving past him.

Pomfrey was already tending to Albus and the seventh year student aide approached them, asking if they needed anything.

"No, we're here for him," Scorpius gestured to Albus who was groaning in protest as Pomfrey fussed with him. "But you could probably check him out," he vaguely pointed to Zach behind them before hurrying to Albus' side.

"Albus you absolute idiot," Lily sighed, holding Albus' hand.

"What? I couldn't let him talk to Scorpius like that — ow!" He hissed as Pomfrey began applying a cream to his already red and swollen black eye.

"Be still," Pomfrey tsked, continuing to dab around his eye.

"Merlin, my head is pounding," he groaned as soon as she brought her hand away. He went to bring his arm up to cover his face but immediately regretted it, crying out in pain, doubling over to hold his side.

Pomfrey sighed and guided him to his back slowly, "What don't you understand about 'be still'? You Potter's are impossibly stubborn."

"Sorry," Albus mumbled, squeezing his eyes shut and wincing in pain.

Pomfrey held her wand over Albus' head and then over his abdomen. He whimpered as she applied slight pressure to his right side and she set her wand down.

Without saying anything, she turned away, going back into her office for a brief moment.

"Your lip is busted," Scorpius sighed, reaching forward to wipe the blood off his top lip. Albus just frowned as he looked up at Scorpius. Something passed between them for a moment. Scorpius felt butterflies in his stomach and a tingle in his thumb where it was touching Albus' lip.

Scorpius pulled his hand away quickly and felt a blush creep up his neck to his cheeks as he caught Lily's knowing gaze. She smirked, opening her mouth to comment but before she could say anything, Pomfrey reappeared on the other side of Albus' bed.

"Mr. Potter, you have a concussion and a broken rib," she informed as she placed two bottles on the nightstand.

"What?" No," Albus protested, moving to sit up but quickly realized that was a bad idea and cringed as he laid back down slowly.

"You need rest, Potter," Pomfrey sighed, "I have a pain potion and a bone mending potion for you to take. I assume it hurts to breathe right now?"

"Yes," Albus gave one nod then winced and laid his head back against the pillow. "It hurts to think too," he admitted.

Pomfrey chuckled as she poured out the potions for him.

"Take this," she handed him the pain potion, "and this." Followed by the bone mending potion.

Albus took both as instructed, trying not to gag on both of them so Pomfrey wouldn't tsk at him.

"And now, since I don't trust you to be still for the next few days, you need to take off your robes," she instructed.

"Huh?" Albus' face heated up and he whimpered as Pomfrey helped him sit up again.

"Just your top, come on. I'm going to put a wrap around your abdomen so you don't bump your ribs while they're trying to heal."

Albus groaned, "I can be still," he insisted.

Pomfrey scoffed, "That's likely. Come on, do as I say. You'll thank me later."

Albus begrudgingly, and painfully slowly, took off his robes until he was left in his undershirt and his uniform was discarded. Scorpius made sure it was folded neatly on the empty bed next to them.

"That too," Pomfrey shook her head as she prepared the wraps for him.

He pulled it off over his head and both Lily and Scorpius let out audible gasps at the sight of the fresh bruises scattered across Albus' torso.

Pomfrey also hesitated as she took in the sight. "Let's put some healing cream on these before I wrap them up," she decided, grabbing the bottle she used on his black eye earlier.

Scorpius watched Albus' face scrunch up in pain at each soft dab of Pomfrey's finger. His heart ached at the sight and he desperately wanted to take away Albus' pain.

He wasn't entirely sure what he and Albus were, his mind flashed with all their late nights behind closed curtains, hushed whispers and soft touches. Then with Albus standing up for him today and wondered if Albus wanted more with Scorpius. Neither of them had been in a relationship before, so neither of them knew how it was supposed to work, but Scorpius knew he cared for Albus more than anyone else in the world and that's all that mattered right now.

Albus chose to hold his hand as Pomfrey wrapped the bandage around his torso tightly and Scorpius held him tenderly.

Once Pomfrey had done all she could for Albus, she moved over to check on Zach who had a few friends surrounding him now. She stayed with him for less than a minute, realizing he didn't need any medical assistance. They overheard her tell him he was fine to go and then retired back to her office.

A few minutes after Pomfrey had left, James and Professor Longbottom entered the hospital wing.

"He has a concussion and a broken rib," Lily informed as they settled in.

"Merlin Al," James sighed, shaking his head. "Warn me next time you decide to throw some hands." He reached out to ruffle Albus' hair but stopped when he noticed Albus cringe before James could even touch him. "It's that bad?" He asked softly, concern filling his voice and face.

"Yeah," Albus frowned, "Everything hurts."

"I'm sending your parents an owl—" Neville began but Albus quickly cut him off, a frantic look crossing his face.

"Please don't tell them why they attacked me," he begged.

Neville eyed his godson carefully, "'Why they attacked you?' But Albus, I have to tell them..."

Albus shook his head, ignoring the horrible throbbing it caused, "They don't need to know that it was because they think Scorpius and I are gay."

There was a heavy silence between the five of them. Albus gave his godfather and siblings a pleading look. James and Lily cast each other knowing stares.

"Fine," Neville eventually sighed, "But I'm not leaving anything else out. Your parents would kill me if I failed to tell them that both their sons were involved in a fight like this."

"Thank you," Albus let out a breath of relief and slouched into his pillow.

Pomfrey appeared, tsking at them, "Albus really should be resting right now, all this socializing is not good for his concussion. He'll only be allowed one visitor at a time from here on out."

James, Lily and Neville shuffled to their feet, silently realizing that that meant Scorpius would get to stay with him for now.

"If you need me for anything, just have one of them tell me, okay?" Neville smiled assuringly, giving Albus' leg a gentle squeeze of affection before saying his goodbye.

"Bye Al, don't do anything stupid. I love you," Lily gave him a sympathetic smile and grabbed his hand again for a moment.

"I'll try not to," Albus winked, "Love you too though."

"Bye stupid," James smirked, giving him a simple salute before walking off with Lily back to Gryffindor.

Once they were gone, Scorpius settled onto the bed next to Albus, making sure to sit down gently and not jostle him too much.

"Hi," Albus whispered.

"Hi," Scorpius replied just as softly, both of them exchanging tender glances. "Thanks for standing up for me, but not thanks for nearly getting killed over it."

Albus just giggled, "They weren't gonna kill me..."

Scorpius looked at him seriously, "I think they wanted to, whether they could of... That's a different story."

An exasperated sigh left Albus' mouth and he leaned into Scorpius' side. 

Scorpius took the hint and fell quiet, wrapping his arm around Albus' shoulder, "We don't have to talk about it. I'm just glad you're okay now."

"Am I though?" Albus croaked, turning his face into Scorpius' shoulder.

He was silent for a moment, holding Albus close to him. "You will be," he promised, "If you take your potions and rest like Pomfrey said."

Albus giggled again and Scorpius' heart felt warm at the sound, "Okay, Mr. Healer of mine."

Scorpius felt his cheeks heat up and he ducked his head away from Albus so he wouldn't notice.

As he turned away he noticed the wall on the clock and realized that dinner would just now be starting.

"Would you like me to go and grab you some food, and perhaps some clean pajamas?" Scorpius asked and Albus practically beamed in response.

"That would be so lovely of you."

"It's no problem at all," he insisted, sliding off the bed carefully and making a move to leave.

"Scorpius, wait," Albus grabbed his hand, stopping him by surprise before he could make it any further. 

He couldn't help but notice Albus' furrowed brow and his tomato red cheeks, "What is it?"

Albus scrunched his face, mouthing something as if he couldn't quite bring himself to say what he wanted. After struggling for a few moments the words tumbled from his tongue and he knew he couldn't take it back, "CanIkissyou?"

It was Scorpius' turn for his cheeks to turn pink and for his words to be mumbled and his fingers to fidget, "You want to kiss me?"

"Yes, if that's okay," Albus' voice was small and Scorpius was feeling the butterflies in his stomach, unable to decline any request of Albus', especially something like this.

"Of course," Scorpius blubbered. He glanced around to check that they were alone and leaned forward, being as gentle as he could with it as he connected their lips.

Albus led the kiss, moving his lips slowly against Scorpius'. The blond boy hummed happily before they pulled apart, beaming smiles covering both their faces.

"Okay," Scorpius breathed, unable to think clearly, his brain now muddled with only thoughts of Albus. "Okay... I'm going to go get the uh... the things that I said I would, and then we will talk about this, okay?"

"Okay," Albus repeated, chuckling at Scorpius being as flustered as he felt.

As Scorpius hesitantly backed away, Albus fell back into his pillows again, the warmth from his chest distracting him from the stabbing pain in his side and the throbbing in his head for just a few moments.

He couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he noticed a skip in Scorpius' step as he left the hospital wing. He knew that even if everything hurt right now, and even if Richards and Brooks still picked on them, that he would be able to get through it all with Scorpius by his side.

At the last second, just before Scorpius slipped through the door way, he turned around and waved at Albus. He lifted his hand as high as he could with the pain in his side and waved back happily.


End file.
